We love Instagram, we really do, but with increasing frustration at the algorithm we all battle with on a daily basis, it feels like many are looking for alternative ways to market their small business effectively. At our recent Seek Inspire Create event in Lewes, Georgie and Dorte of Curly Carrot gave a talk to our group about how to use Pinterest for business. It was a total eye-opener. I have also recently taken their e-course and have found by taking their advice, I am seeing more traffic to our website and our monthly unique viewers on Pinterest have more than doubled in the space of a few weeks! I therefore decided to invite Dorte and Georgie to share their top five Pinterest tips with our blog readers so that you can try implementing their advice yourselves, hopefully driving more traffic to your online space, too. Over to you ladies!
The first thing to understand is that Pinterest is different from other online marketing platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Users are actively searching for something – content, information, services and products. They aren’t just scrolling; looking to see what others are doing, commenting and liking. Pinterest users have specific interests and are shown content related to their interests. This means that what they are seeing when scrolling through Pinterest is likely to be the kind of thing they would click on to find out more about. The question is, how can you make sure they click on your pins and discover your business and your products or service?
Here are 5 ways to make Pinterest work harder for your creative business that you can easily implement into your Pinterest strategy and see results quicker than you’d think!
1/ CREATE BEAUTIFUL PINS
Pinterest is a positive place that people escape to for aspiration as well as practical ideas that they can act on in their daily lives. It helps to keep this in mind when creating your pin, as well as making it attractive and useful, show how it will fit into people’s lives. Pinners want to save pins that inspire, engage and tell a story!
They should:
- Stand out in the Smart Feed and catch the eye.
- Attract your perfect customer.
- Entice people to click through to your website.
2/ WRITE A GOOD PIN DESCRIPTION
Pinterest is a SEARCH ENGINE. What would your perfect customer search for to find your Pin?
To do this you need to:
- Figure out what your keywords are.
- Write complete sentences using the keywords that describe your product or service in the Pin.
3/ OPTIMISE YOUR WEBSITE OR ONLINE STORE FOR PINTEREST
A third of all Google searches are for images! Pinterest is popular because people are drawn to visuals and love searching for them. By not deleting that ‘IMG_1785’ title and including keywords in your Alt Text then you’re missing a huge SEO trick and ruining your chances of appearing in search.
4/ SCHEDULE YOUR PINS
Pinterest rewards pins that are saved consistently. It doesn’t work if you save 100 pins in one day and then none for a week. It is much more effective to drip feed these pins to your boards over the week. The best way to do this is to use a scheduling tool. An authorised Pinterest partner, Tailwind is easy to use and is a great timesaving tool. (Sign up for your free trial here*) Using Tailwind means you don’t have to manually pin every day. You can even have all your pins scheduled for two weeks in advance while you’re on holiday! No commenting or engagement required to get results either!
*This an affiliate link. Which means if you start to pay the monthly fee, (only $9.99 per month and worth every penny) Curly Carrot will receive a small fee. Curly Carrot recommends Tailwind because they use it and it works! They want you to get results for your business too.
5/ PIN OTHER PEOPLE’S CONTENT
Think of your Pinterest account as a lifestyle magazine for your business. Include great content from others that compliments your business ethos. This will help you to hone down your aesthetic and style and see you become a resource. There is no magic ratio of your pins to others and it depends on how much of your own content you have. Experiment!
To learn more about how Pinterest can help your creative business to thrive and flourish visit Curly Carrot for a one-stop shop on all things Pinterest! Podcasts, free downloads, blogposts and the online course mentioned in the introduction.
Get 15% off the £69 launch price with the discount code ‘91MAG15’ – Enrol Here
